Burlington Coat Factory paid $300,000 to the Business Software Alliance,
an industry trade group that polices software licenses, to settle claims
it had installed unlicensed copies of Microsoft Corp. and McAfee Inc.
programs on computers in its offices.

Jenny Blank, BSA's enforcement director, said the settlements show it's
more expensive to illegally copy software than to legally acquire licenses.

As part of the settlements, Burlington and Payless agreed to delete the
unlicensed copies, purchase replacement programs and strengthen their
software management practices.

"We have created a new software management policy and continue to
refine its implementation to emphasize the importance of understanding
each software company's licensing requirements and use only fully licensed
software," Brad H. Friedman, Burlington's chief information officer,
said in a release.

A Payless representative did not immediately return a call or an e-mail
seeking comment.

BSA received reports on Payless and Burlington Coat Factory through its
online reporting system at http://www.bsa.org.
The industry group offers rewards of up to $200,000 for qualifying reports.

Bain Capital Partners took Burlington, N.J.-based Burlington Coat Factory
private for $2.1 billion in April. International Business Machines Corp.
in October completed its $1.3 billion acquisition of Internet Security
Systems.

Shares of Payless dipped 20 cents to $31.76 in afternoon trading on the
New York Stock Exchange.